Bernanke: Speeding up credit card rules could hurt consumers

Mr. Bernanke's comments may pose difficulties to the House Financial Services Committee as it anticipates marking up a bill this week that would move up enactment of credit card protection regulations to Dec. 1 - weeks earlier than scheduled.
While the new deadline could benefit consumers by providing protections earlier than scheduled, it also would force the Federal Reserve to implement the new rules without giving the public and the credit card industry time for comment, "which could lead to unintended consequences."
Mr. Bernanke's comments were included in a letter dated Tuesday to the House Financial Services Committee's top Republican, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, who had written to the chairman earlier this month asking for his input on moving up the enforcement date of the credit card rules.